As I do every year that I’m located in Australia at Christmas time I got to go to the Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). As an adult the only times I didn’t go to at least one day of the five day test match (yes friends it takes five days to get a result) was when I’m overseas (and the one year they only played a one-day match on 26th December instead of a Test Match). It’s a tradition in Melbourne to attend and for the rest of Australia to watch including hosting/attending a BBQ on Boxing Day. It’s a time for swimming, relaxing, catching up with friends, recovering from the excesses of Christmas. For some it’s the day to get the post Christmas sales. Mostly it’s a time to enjoy life whatever way that you want.

Unfortunately this year the over the top security at the MCG over the first two days of the Test Match have made me incredibly sad. It shows we have let a few crazy people (terrorists) run and ruin our lives. We seem to be saying “You have won, we give up you don’t need to actually do anything to make us scared now.”

This new security is having check points away from the ground that include metal detractors and pat downs which really only protects the ground not the patrons arriving at the ground. The justification is what happened in Paris recently when so called “jihadists” tried to get into an International Football match and failed. The security at the match in Paris is the same as what we had ie it worked. The terrorists just killed people outside the ground instead.

I hate we here in Melbourne seem to have given in to the terrorists despite it being way more likely in Australia to die from a tree falling or heatstroke. What’s next? Body scans at the Chadstone Shopping Centre? I mean there have been far more terrorist attacks at shopping centres then sporting grounds around the world. It sucks we have giving up the fun and enjoyment in our life and seem to want everyone to be scared all the time.

I mean I saw a five year old getting security scans 😦 Come on, more people die from smoking or car accidents or workplace accidents in Australia but let’s scan a five year old and let them know to be afraid despite there being more chance a shark will eat them. It also meant the kids having a bowl / playing outside the ground were stopped from doing so, this will likely stop the kicking of the footy outside the ground as well if this becomes the new reality.

Let’s not give in to terror. If there is intelligence / justification, or even if the chance goes up from 0.000000001%, we should / could consider a short term over the top useless and expensive security like what I’ve seen the last 2 day at the G but until then don’t give the terrorist what they want – us scared. Let’s support our intelligence and police community but not give in on enjoying life.

Let’s enjoy the sun, the cricket and our friends and really piss off the crazy ‘religious’ fanatics. Let’s live our lives, yes take reasonable care, but we can’t stop living or only living on their crazy terms. Life is so short let’s enjoy it and not jump at shadows and for gods sake let children be children and grown men try to be children again :).